Bourke revels in happy ending

Three years ago he was in Parnell Park toasting a Fitzgibbon Cup triumph with UCC — and replicating that feat in his final game for the college was an occasion to savour for Shane Bourke on Saturday.

The JK Brackens man captained UCC to success on a perfect personal send-off from the third-level arena.

“It’s my last Fitz game, I’ve captained UCC to win it down the Mardyke, so it doesn’t really get better than that. It was an unbelievable feeling in 2009. Back then it was my first year at college and I probably didn’t appreciate it fully. But I’m definitely going to enjoy this. It’s some feeling to win the Fitz on our home patch. It’s a fantastic competition.”

The competition has been an excellent springboard for Bourke in his attempts to carve an inter-county senior career with Tipperary and he was again to the fore on Saturday as he struck three points. Yet he preferred to deflect the praise to his team-mates.

“The character of this team couldn’t be questioned. We pulled it out against GMIT up in the group stages, we came through against a UCD team with star names in the quarter-final and then held off UL in the semi-final.

“We were out of it in normal time on Saturday, then we’d it won, then it was a draw. We said in the dressing room before extra-time that with 10 minutes to go, we’d have settled for this. We were gone with 10 minutes to go. I think it was won in the first-half of extra-time when we really put the shoulder to the wheel.”